How to respond to the email “Your account is hacked. Your data is stolen. Learn how to regain access.”

Long story short : Do not panic.

It’s a scam.
You wake up one morning and open your inbox. You find an email informing you that one or more of your accounts have been hacked, and more importantly, that all the compromising content you’ve viewed online has been recorded.

To prevent this information from being posted online, you’re invited to pay a ransom in Bitcoin within a short timeframe. The urgent tone of the email and the warnings might push you to pay in the worst case, or to bite your nails all day in the best case.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that no one has access to your data. You can ignore this message.

On the other hand, it’s likely that your passwords were obtained from hacked sites or retrieved from a database of stolen passwords. You can check this at https://haveibeenpwned.com or via Google Chrome’s password check feature. If the password sent to you is one you still use in any context, stop using it and change it immediately. It’s also recommended to enable two-factor authentication to enhance the security of your online accounts.

Finally, it’s important not to reply to the email or click on any links or attachments it contains, as this could infect your computer, for real this time.